Hulu Disables Facebook Connect Over Privacy Glitch

Hulu has temporarily suspended its Facebook Connect option after some users saw the profile photo and email address of other users when connecting their accounts.

Hulu has temporarily suspended its Facebook Connect option after some users saw the profile photo and email address of other users when connecting their accounts.

Hulu said the glitch was a coding error, not the result of a hack.

"When we launched our Facebook Connect feature early this morning, we discovered that a small number of users weren't seeing their own Hulu account information upon login," Richard Tom, vice president of platform technology at Hulu, said in a Friday blog post. "We're still drilling down on the precise nature of the issue, but we know that it was a coding and configuration error on Hulu's side, and not the result of hacking, or other third party actions, or a vulnerability in Facebook Connect."

When I tried to connect my Hulu and Facebook accounts the other day, for example, I couldn't remember my Hulu password. After a few tries, a pop-up window appeared and displayed the photo and email address for a woman named Sharon. It didn't provide any other additional information about her, and I clicked the "Not Sharon?" link to re-set my own password, but I imagine Sharon wouldn't want Hulu sharing her email address with random tech journalists.

Hulu said it has "been able to confirm approximately 50 affected users whose profile data, including email addresses, could have been accessed." No one, however, gained access to Hulu's system or sensitive data like credit card information, the company said.

But, "out of an abundance of caution," Hulu said it will disable Facebook Connect on the site. Privacy settings for those who connected their Hulu and Facebook accounts, meanwhile, will be upgraded to "the most restrictive settings," Hulu said.

"Once we are certain that the issue has been fully addressed, we will re-launch our Facebook Connect program," Tom wrote. "We apologize to any affected users, and we intend to do everything we can to make it right and avoid similar issues in the future."

The Connect option, which launched last week, allowed users to comment on and share specific moments in Hulu videos on the social-networking site.

Chloe Albanesius has been with PCMag.com since April 2007, most recently as Executive Editor for News and Features. Prior to that, she worked for a year covering financial IT on Wall Street for Incisive Media. From 2002 to 2005, Chloe covered technology policy for The National Journal's Technology Daily in Washington, DC. She has held internships at NBC's Meet the Press, washingtonpost.com, the Tate Gallery press office in London, Roll Call, and Congressional Quarterly. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in journalism from American University...
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